In this short video, Alison Kobelak, a new member of Serge Bourgoin & Associates – FindMyHouse.ca, provides a great testimonial on how effective Serge’s mentorship and how it helped her quadruple her income!
Remember to follow Serge on Instagram @SergeBourgoin and get a first hand view on how he’s helping Edmonton homebuyers, sellers and investors.
For a complete list of available Edmonton homes for sale, check out the new Edmonton MLS listings.
Thinking of adding more value to your home or you just want it to simply look awesomely good? We got the good stuff for you! Team Leading Edge gathered the 5 simple tips and tricks to help you execute your home reno perfectly.
THINK AHEAD OF TIME
Knowing what you want and deciding what you need to do a head of time will help you avoid those excruciating delays-time is gold my friend!
Having planned ahead would also help your bottom line. You’ll know what the cost would be and can make those necessary adjustments in your cash flow as to not impact your other expenses, in other words, budget!
INFORMATION IS POWER
Home renovation does have the possibility of ending up in a mess and giving you and your family headaches due to the potential inconveniences that it poses. A simple way to avoid this is to inform your family of all the reno plans, from the top to the bottom and preparing them for it. With simple preparations, the whole family can adjust their schedules to accommodate the renovation process. Reno work might start from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, so you may want to bring the kids back home after 5 or since the living area might be a bit dusty, you may want to take your family out for dinner.
REMEMBER THE FILTER
As we have said, the reno work could be dusty so it is best to check and change the air filters during and after the whole work. Worst case scenario would be having the HVAC system damaged because of the heavy dust particles. Avoid this costly mistake by simply changing the filters.
IF YOU’RE DOING THE KITCHEN
If you still don’t know, improving the kitchen is one of the most cost effective way to drive up the value of your home once you are ready to sell. Replacing the kitchen counter top can be the most affordable and be made in a short span of time.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, KNOW YOUR CONTRACTOR
Unless, you’re a contractor yourself (which is cool) you may want to double check on the background of your chosen contractor. Don’t just be impressed because the contractor was referred to you by your friend, do your own research and try to find out the contractors previous projects-this will give you a snapshot of he’s quality of work.
It’s a manic Monday once again in Edmonton and I just had a fill of my cappuccino so let’s start our week right and bright with some home improvement ideas!
There’s a saying that the fastest way to a mans heart is through his stomach (I approve!) so its best to focus our attention to the kitchen. Ladies, moms and girlfriends we did the leg work for you and compiled the list of great kitchen inspirations available in the world wide web. Prepare to stimulate your visual senses with the compilation below–and don’t forget to let us know what you think in the comment section!
2. SieMatic’s Sliding Drawer System: Kitchens.com showcases SieMatics new product line for the beloved Kitchen drawer. Mr. and Mrs. Smith would love this one. According to the article, “Thanks to the outstanding versatility of the SieMatic system, drawers can be subdivided and accessorized more individually than ever before.”Read more here.
4. 30 Great Kitchen Design Ideas: housebeautiful.com pieced together an artistic slideshow for those serious in taking the kitchen to a whole new level. Cali kitchen, French Fantasy Kitchen and a whole lot more funky sounding kitchen design awaits you! Click here to view it.
5. Kitchen Design Ideas: Saved the best for last! One of my favorite places to look for inspiration is Pinterest. It’s a universe of fantastic images. Here is a board of kitchen ideas that would surely be a visual overload! Browse until your heart is satisfied. View it here.
Kitchen is one of the most important places inside the house. Improving your kitchen could and would surely add to the overall value of the home literally and figuratively so don’t stop with just your plain vanilla designed kitchen. There’s thousands of possibilities on how to make your kitchen stand out and we hope the sources have above would serve as an inspiration for you.
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This article was inspired by the recent piece of CBC News, “ GO PUBLIC | TD Bank client ‘devastated’ by $17,000 mortgage penalty”. I’ve seen from my Facebook feed comments stating that this was a serious problem and that there are many individuals that have been victims of huge mortgage penalties. It’s a horrible thing to happen to anyone who would like to terminate their mortgage contract with their banks.
There’s nothing much that anyone could really do about it. There’s currently no law that regulates the standardization of mortgage penalties. If you’re thinking of paying off your mortgage early, we at Team Leading Edge have compiled a list of the major banks’ penalty calculators. We all know this isn’t the most accurate tool as there are other factors that would affect the overall result but this is just as helpful in estimating the range of the penalty that you would actually pay.
From the first day that you decide to sell your house to the last day when you hand over the keys, it is a cooperative effort between you and your Realtor to get your home sold fast and for the most money possible. Yes, you also play a big part in selling your home. Here are some helpful tips to make the transition from owner to seller a much easier process:
1. Mental Transition: You need to start here if you want to sell your home. Stop thinking of it as your place of zen, where you lay your head at night, etc, and start thinking of it as something that is going to put a lot of money into your pocket.
2. Remove all personal items: During showings, you want people coming through the house thinking of where their pictures will go and not feel like they’re walking though someone else’s memories.
3. Clutter-be-gone: Throw away the things you haven’t seen or used in ages – meaning, if you haven’t needed it in the past two years, chances are you’re not going to. If you are serious about selling your house, you will be serious about moving out of it. Start going through your belongings and get rid of everything that you don’t use which will help de-clutter your spaces and make your move an easier one.
4. Don’t forget to clean/organize the small spaces: Expect that when people are walking through the house, they are going to look through the closets and kitchen cabinets. Pride of ownership will be apparent to prospective buyers when they see that even the nooks and crannies have been tended to.
5. DO sweat the small stuff: Burnt out light bulbs, drippy faucets, a squeaky door, etc, are minor things that you can do yourself to get the house ready for those all important showings. The less a prospective buyer has to do, the better, as a multitude of small things can add up to one big “no”.
6. From the windows to the walls: Put yourself in the buyers shoes – if you walked into a house and saw a greasy counter top, dirty bathroom sink, bugs on the window sills, etc, what would you think? Wash or clean anything with a flat surface and dust everything else. Be proud and show off the house in the best light possible!
7. Create Rubber-necks: As important as it is to keep the interior maintained, the exterior is the first thing people will see when coming to the house. Cut the grass, collect the mail, clean up cobwebs around your porch light, etc, and you can ensure that the people walking up or driving by will continue on without the idea that the inside of the house may look as bad as the outside.
These tips can make the difference between listing your home and selling it, specially in Edmonton.
For more helpful tips and information, visit us online at FindMyHouse.ca.
Brought to you by Team Leading Edge and Re/Max Elite
It’s the million dollar question, how would you really know the monetary value of your home? With the advent of the internet, it’s now easier than it was 20 years ago. Although, accuracy could be an issue since data changes all the time, knowing an estimated value of your precious home is better than knowing absolutely nothing at all.
Here are 5 easy ways to get you started if you’re thinking of selling your home in the near future.
TIMING: The time of year you’re thinking of selling your home plays a considerable role in its overall success. Winter season would typically pose a certain difficulty in the selling process since majority of the buyers don’t want to move things in negative degree weather.
Nonetheless, there’s always a market in whatever season, the only difference is the time it would take to sell it. Since there would be fewer buyers in the cold season, this may drag the price down as those people who would really like to sell will lower down their selling price to attract buyers. Also, homes that are for sale in the summer time might sell faster than those being sold in winter.
COMPARATIVE MARKET ANALYSIS: One technique that is being done by appraisers and Realtors all over the world to know the value of a property is called Comparative Market Analysis or CMA. Though this should really be done by professionals, there is no law that would stop you if you want to do this yourself.To put it in simple terms, CMA is the process of extracting an estimate value of a subject home based on the prices of properties sold in the same neighborhood, area or location in past few months, given the value of the sold properties have similarities to the subject home; same square footage, number of bedrooms.This isn’t a perfect science but it would be a good guide to know what the price range of your home is.
Google search homes sold in your neighborhood the past month and see what prices come out. Ask your neighbors if they know anybody around your area that have sold a house and for how much. If everything goes as planned, you can compare and contrast the data you have gathered against your property and analyze the result which can basically give you a rough estimate on the price range.
Do note that appraisers and Realtors have the tools and trainings to perform this process properly. It could be a hit or miss on your side of the business.
FREE ONLINE CALCULATORS: Take advantage of the technology that’s available. Like the CMA, online calculators might not give you the most accurate value but it would surely help validate the price range that you got out of the previous step that you have done.Keep in mind to be certain that the information you included in the info fields of the calculator are proper like the address, sq ft, etc. There is a probability that results from the calculator may vary widely, if and when this happen, you may just want to get the average of the results.
Click here
MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICE (MLS): Realtors or real estate professionals all over the world use the MLS to store real estate data. From Edmonton, Canada to Manila, Philippines, MLS is being used. Although the systems being employed to run the process are very different, using MLS is the internationally known way to provide real estate information to clients.The public have limited access to the information inside the MLS but you may still use this as a tool to perform the first two steps. You may be able to check the number of people selling similar homes like yours on a particular neighborhood at a specific time and at what prices their homes are selling for.Realtors on the other hand have 100% access to all the pertinent information inside the MLS that they are a member with and could extract this information to establish an appropriate price for a distinct property.
USE PROFESSIONALS: That is what Team Leading Edge is for; licensed, competent Realtors that make it a living to help people like you determine the most competitive value for your home.An experienced Realtor will do the leg work in consolidating all the data needed to accurately put a price on your property. He or she will combine online, offline and internal information found in the Realtor network to help you sell the property in the best possible price, at the shortest amount of time.
After you have done all your homework, the next best thing to do is to work with the people who do this the best. Recently awarded as one of the Top 30 RE/MAX Real Estate Teams in Western Canada, Team Leading Edge has all the systems in place to help you succeed in this endeavor. Call Team Leading Edge now at (780) 634-8151 to get you started.
Basically, it was answering the question on how to tell if the exterior of the windows (and doors) are part of the condominium unit or not.
Going to the point, the article informs the readers that “Before September 1, 2000, exterior doors and windows were considered to be part of the unit. After that date, exterior doors and windows became part of the common property. However, a corporation registered prior to September 1, 2000 had until September 1, 2002, to register a special resolution to amend the plan so that these became part of the individual units again. This can mean that some condominiums may have windows and doors that are part of the unit and not the common area.”
This got my train of thought going. Since Alberta’s economy is poised to be one of the best in Canada this year and in 2015 as reported by RBC, and that Edmonton’s local government have reported an increase in growth population by 7.4%, the probability of people buying condominiums, either as a home or an investment would increase.
With this in mind, I believe it is apt to share with you this 5 simple things to consider when buying a condominium. Take this to heart and you’ll be at the right side of things. Please feel free to add or share your thoughts in our comment section below.
LOCATION, LOCATION, YES-LOCATION: This is the golden rule of real estate and this rings true wherever you are in the world. The neighborhood and location of the condominium hinges on this simple fact. Remember that the location is one of the main contributing factors in successfully renting out or reselling the property in the future-unless you prefer to live out your life in there, which I would highly doubt.
RULES, RULES, RULES: It holds so much importance that I need to repeat it thrice. A thorough review of the rights and restrictions in the condominium bylaws is very much needed. Read and understand the rules as some or most of it might affect you or your future rental business. Here’s a good example. My condominium doesn’t allow pets and I handle several units for rent here so when I got two inquiries from potential tenants, I was painfully disappointed (in the business side) that they have trained house dogs. Trained or not, pets aren’t allowed so that situation basically ruined my business-at least for those two.
FEES, PAYMENTS, DUES: Those three synonyms mean the same thing, monthly bill. No matter where you go, condominiums always charge a certain fee for the maintenance of the common areas and the overall building.
It’s important to know what the condominium fee is. Something that should ring your bells and alarms is the low condominium fee. It’s not always good. You may want to find out why the fee is low, assuming you followed what I wrote in number one.
PLAN OUT: Like everything we do in life, buying a condominium should be planned out. Would you use it as a home or will it be a rental property? If it’s the latter, would you manage it yourself or will you hire a property manager? It’s all about risk management. If you have things well planned out, the probability of losing money would be minimal or even non-existent.
RENTAL PROPERTY: I just want to include this in here. If you plan to live in the condominium, then the first four steps would cover you. But if you’re planning to make this a serious investment, read on. Keep in mind that it is important to be strict in yourself when conducting due diligence for your potential condominium. Inquire about the experiences of the present tenants as most of the time, this would give you a good glimpse of what it’s really like living in the building-the things that the paperwork won’t reveal. And speaking of paperwork, you may need a real estate lawyer to pore over the condominium association’s rental lease.Lastly, a simple way to see if the condominium is good for rental is to check if there are a good number of owners renting out their units. This is because the bylaws could be amended to prohibit renting in the future-if there are a good number of owners renting out their units, then the chances of that happening would be slim-again, part of your risk-management.
Stick with this 5 simple things and you’ll be on your way to having a great condominium property.
To make sure you don’t make any mistakes in the process, it is truly advisable to seek the help of professional Realtors. Team Leading Edge is an experienced team that have sold condominiums in Edmonton. Recently awarded as one of the Top 30 RE/MAX Real Estate Teams in Western Canada, the team is made up of competent Realtors that could and would help you in every step of the buying process.
Do you know how great investors are distinguished against average people?
They are the ones who grab an opportunity fast whenever it presents itself.
Okay, wait, let me rephrase that. They’re the ones who POUNCE to every bit of opportunity that life presents!
That’s much better.
To elaborate further, great investors are the kind of people who make their own luck. They don’t wish for luck. One of the best books I’ve ever read is “The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason”. There were four quotes mentioned in that book relating to luck that I would like to share with you. First, “Good luck waits to come to that man who accepts opportunity”, second, “To attract good luck to oneself, it is necessary to take advantage of opportunities” third, “Good luck can be enticed by accepting opportunity” and lastly, “Men of action are favored by the Goddess of Good Luck”.
Although the book was written ages ago, the quotes still apply to this day and as I see it, it will persist for as long as there are human existence that strive to achieve a greater sense of being. I’m striving to achieve a good life and if you do as well, then its best that you too take the quotes to heart as it may guide you in your own journey.
A great opportunity is in front of you right now. Take the CanoraExperience. This 4 bedroom half duplex bungalow is currently in the market. Given the economic rise of Alberta this year, this kind of real estate property would come ever so rare.
At $274, 900, this 969 sq ft piece of opportunity can and should be your next home or investment. Analyze the data, crunch the numbers, do your due diligence, I assure you all of it would point to same conclusion. To put it simple terms; this will bring the best bang for your buck.
Check out the photos below and see for yourself how this opportunity could change your life.
Selling a home is no easy task that is why there are Realtors such as our team, but don’t think of it as a deterrent. The point that you are reading this article suggest that you would like to do something on your end to make the selling process as fast and efficient as possible, which is great! Below are 5 incredibly easy ways for you to help your Realtor market your home and create more value for your priced possession. Follow it and you’re going to be smiling your way to the bank.
Ceramic Wall Tiles
CHOOSE NATURAL: Materials such as granite, ceramic tiles and even hardwood create more value than synthetic materials such as acrylics. When renovating kitchen floors, chose wood over linoleum as it will look classier to home buyers than the latter.
Laminated products offer additional value for wall-to-wall renos. Keep the carpets well maintained as it is one of the very first things home buyers see. You wouldn’t want potential buyers to think they’ll spend tons of money just to replace the carpet, wouldn’t you?
KEEP THE PAINT FRESH: Keeping a fresh coat of paint in the master bedroom, kitchen and other parts of the house will go a long way. It is the most cost effective way to add that buzz to your home.Stay clean and neutral with taupe, brown and off-white colors. Neutral shades is key as bright colors would tend to do more harm in the selling process than good. Lastly, stay off dark colors as it tends to create an effect which makes a room smaller than it really is.
BE ENERGY EFFICIENT: Nothing beats having low electrical bills. You experience it yourself every time the bill comes. An energy efficient house is a very marketable piece of real estate especially now that almost everybody is budget conscious. There are low cost solar panels and rain catchment systems now out in the market that you could take advantage off. You may even ask your local utility company to show how to truly maximize home energy efficiency. Majority of the energy providers do it for free.
STORAGE GALORE: The more storage you have in your home, the better. Home buyers nowadays prefer a generous amount of attic and closet space. Having space is very important, especially if the potential buyer/s have a lot of equipment’s, i.e. snow blower, bicycles, lawn mower. In this kind of scenario, an over sized garage would really come in handy. His and hers walk-in closet in the master suite would be synonymous to additional dollars in your pocket.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, MAINTENANCE: Hold off the lavish home upgrades and focus on the basics first. Fixing the small things such as leaks, leaky windows, insulating the attic, inspecting the septic system and weeding the flower beds go very long way towards creating value. These small repairs could cost you a hundred dollars but it may create additional zeros to your selling price.
Radon is a dangerous gas you can’t see, smell, or taste. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), about one in every 15 U.S. homes have high radon levels. Because most homes in the Edmonton area are built on a clay foundation won’t don’t find radon a typical issue. Many owners don’t realize there’s a […]
Exciting News for Homeowners: New Federal Program for Adding Rental Units The federal government has introduced a new mortgage refinancing program aimed at helping homeowners create additional living spaces, such as basement apartments or garage conversions. Starting in January 2025, this insured refinancing option will make it easier to build rental units, assisting homeowners in […]
When selling your home, finding the right price can be a delicate balance. Price it too high, and you risk losing potential buyers; price it too low, and you might not realize your home's full value. The key is to find that optimal price point where your listing attracts the right buyers. Here’s a guide […]
The data included on this website is deemed to be reliable, but is not guaranteed to be accurate by the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton. The trademarks REALTOR®, REALTORS® and the REALTOR® logo are controlled by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and identify real estate professionals who are members of CREA. Used under license.
